Forum Rules

Braingle is a family friendly website and our forums are a place for positive discussions about a wide range of topics. Swearing, rudeness and other forms of abuse are not tolerated. If you don't like our rules, please post your comments someplace else. We will not listen to complaints about these rules.

These rules will be enforced by the site moderators. It is their job to keep these forums clean and friendly. Topics and comments may be locked, deleted or edited and members may be banned temporarily or permanently due to bad behavior. Our decision is final in these matters.

General Rules

While debating and discussion is fine, we will not tolerate rudeness, insulting posts, personal attacks or purposeless inflammatory posts.

Discussions about illegal activities such as music piracy, drugs, or hacking are not allowed.

If you are posting a picture, please make sure it is of a reasonable size (under 500 pixels per side is a good rule of thumb).

Do not impersonate a moderator or editor.

If you notice a problem that needs to be addressed, please PM a moderator.

If a moderator posts specific rules for a forum or topic, they must be obeyed.

Multiple accounts are not allowed.

Tolerance

Braingle recognizes and accepts all religious, political or other beliefs. We think that everyone deserves to be treated with respect, regardless of their personal beliefs. By participating in these forums, you agree to be tolerant of other people's beliefs, even if they differ from your own, and you agree to treat everyone with the same kindness and respect that you would want them to give to you.

No Profanity or Inappropriate Material

This is a family site and profanity is strictly prohibited. This includes any material that is sexually explicit, derogatory, or discriminates on the basis of gender, age, race, religion, lifestyle, etc. Also prohibited is the use of foul language whether it uses alternate spellings, is placed in an acronym, or is censored. This includes offensively named accounts which may be deleted at any time. In other words, keep it PG.

Links

Links are allowed in the forums, but only for links that reinforce, reference or support a useful post.

The following restrictions are also placed on links: No spam (see below), no adult links, no links to violent material, no linking to illegal activities, and no links to any other website that, in the judgement of the moderators, is not family friendly.

No Spam

Spam is the abuse of our forums by posting advertisements, links to unrelated websites, affiliate or referral links, or in general any post that is off-topic and is designed to benefit only yourself. Spamming is not allowed.

No Trolling or Flaming

A troll is a person who makes comments designed to induce angry replies. A flame is a hostile message that constitutes a personal attack against another member or group. We don't like trolls or flamers.

Avatars

An avatar is a little picture that will appear adjacent to your posts. Avatars of a sexual nature are not allowed. Animated GIFs should be used sparingly. You can edit your avatar here.

Signatures

A signature is a short piece of text that is automatically added to the end of your posts. The maximum length of a signature is 250 characters. HTML formatting inside signatures is not allowed. All of the above rules apply to the content of your signature. You can edit your signature here.

Account Responsibility

You are fully responsible for your own account and protection of your password. Statements such as "My friend/sister/brother/dog was using my account." are not acceptable as an explanation for the violation of any rule. If you share your account with someone and they break the rules, it will be treated the same as if you broke the rules yourself.

Other Rules

It is impossible and impractical to list every rule possible, so use common sense. If asked by a moderator to stop or change a behavior or action, you should do so. You cannot claim that it was not stated in the rules. Moderators give their own time to keep the boards running smoothly. It is their job to keep the forums clean, so don't think that they're "out to get you". Additionally, an attack on a moderator or editor shows a particular lack of regard for the rules, and will get you banned rather quickly. Users will find their time on the board much more enjoyable when they follow the rules and address the moderators and all users politely.